


Winter Shadows

by RisuAlto



Series: Tai Lon's Story [5]
Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Pale Elf Culture, Post-Canon, Pre-Deadfire, Tai Lon thinks Rymrgand is bullshit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-08 13:07:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21476491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RisuAlto/pseuds/RisuAlto
Summary: After the battle at Sun in Shadow, Tai Lon thought she was done with her past for a while.  Then it shows up at her door with a wedding ring and a bag of entrails, so she does the only sensible thing– she leaves for Dyrford to complain about the utter stupidity of Rymrgand’s traditions with her best friend.
Relationships: Edér Teylecg & The Watcher
Series: Tai Lon's Story [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1548022
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6
Collections: Pillars of Eternity Prompts Weekly





	Winter Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> For prompt #0005, "Old Flame."
> 
> I think the word "entrails" comes up like 4 times in this fic. Anyway, this friendship is a joy to write.

“You really should’ve seen it, Watcher,” Edér was saying, leaning back in his seat. “The whole town was out there smiling and laughing. Reminded me of when I was a kid, y’know.”

Tai Lon closed her eyes and savored a long sip of her ale—a brew some new settler had given to Edér after he’d helped their family fix up an old shed. “It sounds like a good time,” she said. “And good on you for getting the whole festival organized.”

Edér scoffed. “I might not have your silver tongue, but I do remember how to throw a party. Some stuff doesn’t change just ‘cause a god got himself blown up.” A bitter note pressed into his voice, and he exhaled, looking away and towards the fireplace. It was Préprima, the temperatures just still something less than comfortable if one stood still for too long, and so there was a fire crackling over the hearth. Fey-like golden flecks snapped away from the flames and fizzled into the air, filling the silence comfortably.

There were shadows on the walls of Edér’s home at this time of day, most of which were caught by the twilight in such a way that the fire hardly seemed to move them. The edges blurred and shifted, but the deep grey shapes remained no matter how the fire tried to cast their images away. It made Tai Lon anxious, something stirring under her skin as she recalled her dreams and the way the world felt when she was looking in on a life that wasn’t quite hers. 

She cleared her throat and sat up straighter. “So, when are you coming back to Caed Nua, Mister Mayor?” she asked. A smile crept across her lips, and Edér seemed to start matching it, but his face fell abruptly.

He set his tankard down with a stark tap against the table, and said, trying to recover something of a light expression, “Soon as you tell me why you’re avoidin’ it, Lady Roadwarden.”

Tai Lon bit her lip with a quick inhale, feeling her cheeks flush, and she looked away.

“Not that I’m complaining, or anything, ‘bout you bein’ here to share a drink with me,” Edér said quickly, leaning in. “It’s just that you usually send a letter or something before you show up, and you didn’t this time.” He paused, blue eyes searching for something on Tai Lon’s face, and she fought against the instinct to just simply explain everything.

She wasn’t usually the type to run away from things, but conditions at Caed Nua, for the moment, were inordinately stressful. Coming to see her best friend was meant to be an escape from it, not an excuse to relive the whole mess and_ also_ dump it on Edér’s shoulders.

“C’mon, Wa—” Edér sighed. “Tai Lon. You’ve never met a problem before that you did find a way to handle. But if something’s going on and you need me, you just gotta ask. Thought you knew that.”

Tai Lon’s shoulders fell. She reached out to steady herself against the edge of the table, heart beating angrily. “_Urrrrgggghhhhhh!_” The sound was escaping her lungs before she could think better of it, chin dropping to her chest as she exhaled a deluge of tension.

The storm that had been beating at her collapsed all at once, and she suddenly wasn’t bracing herself away from the table as much as she was struggling not to fall into it. As her fingers began to tingle from lack of circulation, she finally allowed herself to lean forwards, forehead clunking ungracefully into the wood. Lead seemed to have suddenly filled her veins— Tai Lon found herself unable to move, save for a soft huff that seemed positively ladylike in comparison to the first outburst.

Wood scraped against wood as Tai Lon saw the legs of Edér’s chair scoot backwards a little. “That bad, huh?” he asked, and she could hear a sympathetic smile taking over.

“You have no idea,” she answered, not lifting her head.

“Hey, now. I feel like I should be offended, being the mayor and all.” Edér stood and moved towards the fireplace. 

The earthy, sweet aroma of burning whiteleaf reached Tai Lon’s nose after a few seconds, and she scrunched her face up out of habit. If she was being honest, the smell didn’t bother her so much anymore, not since she had come to associate it with the warm smiles and teasing (if occasionally dark) humor that Edér was so fond of. He knew by now not to hold his pipe right in front of her unless he _wanted_ to be smacked upside the head… and so, really, Tai Lon knew she only held on to the reaction as a kind of inside joke. Tradition, maybe. It made her feel like things were normal.

However, as she was coldly reminded by the uncomfortable feeling of slightly uneven wood against her forehead and pulse beating through her fingertips, things were anything but.

She tipped her head to the side, looking over and up at Edér. “Yeah, well, the next time you get a fanatical priest of Rymrgand in your keep asking for your hand in marriage, you can talk.”

To his credit, Edér didn’t quite splutter at the news. But his retort was just shy of being perfectly timed as he said, “Guess Durance’s agenda didn’t include telling the fanatics guild that you’ve already got all the obnoxious priests you need.”

Tai Lon chuckled. “I guess not.” She sat up, shaking her head with a slightly hysterical smile, unsure whether to be irritated all over again or relieved to be able to properly bitch about the situation at last. “The worst part is, we knew each other.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. His dad was the high priest of Rymrgand in the tribe, back when I lived in the Land—the White. We weren’t exactly friends, but when you grow up around three dozen people, it’s hard not to remember them.” A shiver ran down Tai Lon’s spine as she remembered the way he had barged into the great hall of her keep, carrying aloft a bag of entrails which had been promptly spilled onto the floor. She told Edér as much.

“Tch.” Despite himself, Edér smiled, apparently amused at the notion. “’S that a pale elf thing?” he asked cheekily. “You know, in the Dyrwood, we usually just give each other flowers, in case you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t—”

“Really.”

Tai Lon pressed a palm to her forehead. “You’re just lucky I like you.”

“Why, thanks, Watcher,” Edér said, smiling brightly around his pipe. “No, but seriously, what was he doing bringing a bag of guts into Caed Nua?”

A grin found Tai Lon’s lips as it suddenly dawned on her how utterly _ridiculous_ she could make this practice sound to an outsider without really having to try. “Apparently,” she said, “the guts told him that we were just meant to be.” 

Edér raised an eyebrow and Tai Lon continued, “More pale elf stuff. When someone kills a really impressive animal, the priest shows up and reads the entrails. Whatever Joggdhan’s dad found said that he was supposed to pursue a woman of power who had been ‘Lost to the Land—‘” (she pitched her voice theatrically, allowing it to boom within the snug walls) “—and have a kid with her. Something or other about me being disconnected from the Beast of Winter… I suppose he heard that and suddenly remembered that I had a crush on him when I was _five_ and he wasn’t insufferable.”

“Right, then,” said Edér. “Bet you’re gonna get right back on that.”

“Oh, you know me. Enigmatic and fatalistic. Every day is wonderful because it’s a step closer to oblivion.” Tai Lon rolled her eyes with such force that she was surprised nothing ached by the end of it, and started to laugh. A warm voice bubbled up under hers, and Tai Lon tilted her head back just as Edér set a hand on her shoulder. Her eyes rolled back to meet his, upside down and partially obscured by smoke. 

“I can see why you need a vacation,” Edér said, patting her shoulder again. “Feel free to stay as long as you want. Just don’t get any hopes up about converting that temple across the bridge to the Beast of Winter.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Tai Lon said, smile still on her lips for a moment of sincerity before they quirked suddenly to one side. “Although, I hear Dyrford’s underground is some prime real estate for unwanted gods.”

The firelight danced across Edér’s face, whip-like in his eyes as sympathy and mirth bubbled over in equal measure. “If there’s anything left of him when you’re done cutting that ego down to size, you send him my way,” he offered. 

And, _oh_, was that offer tempting. Tai Lon was so utterly sick of being followed around her own home by this man—this _kid—_like she needed to be kept in check that, for a moment, she didn’t want to consider the whole idea a joke. But slowly, from the back of her mind, a whisper that sounded an awful lot like Steward (or maybe it was Aloth; sometimes it was hard to tell) preached disapproval. Obnoxious or not, this suitor wasn’t a problem she could throw a knife at and then call solved. He, unfortunately, had a pulse and a will of his own.

Steady, pale fingers wrapped around the glass of ale Tai Lon had left nearly forgotten on the table and drew it to her lips. She closed her eyes and let the drink wash over her tongue. It was equal parts bitter and sweet, somehow seeming to fulfill two realities at once without truly touching either one.

When she blinked her eyes open once again, Edér was no longer in her field of view, which left Tai Lon with a perfect view of the hearth. The shadows seemed to jump forth again, slightly hazy around the edges as prime rays of sunset streamed inside. The weaving above the mantle, the vase set off to one side, and the shovels and hoes clustered like a bouquet in one corner—they all seemed to be moving and still, solid and airy, real and utterly _not_, all at once_._

Tai Lon knew she would have to go back. She had chosen the path of the Roadwarden, after all, and fought for it with the kind of valor that wouldn’t let her ever just walk away. She had a certain responsibility to the people who called Caed Nua their protector.

But she would revel in this liminality, this refuge, as long as she could. Caed Nua would survive without her as she sat with a friend, weaving fantasies that involved no wedding rings, for just a little while longer.


End file.
